Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[roverdriver]

If you have just arrived at this story, you might like to go to the beginning, Part 1 that can be found here http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21332.

The lack of a fuel supply at Patchewollock was a concern, but not a great worry. there were more towns further along our route.

We had, of course passed through lots of wheat growing country. The paddocks with either stubble. from the harvest, or wheat being harvested or standing crops awaiting the harvester. Here is a selection of sights from them-









It is interesting that the wheat harvest in this location is in November. We also saw other properties where hay was being cut and baled. At home it is far too early for hay, some farmers are just getting in their late silage.
Hay is now an important cash crop, being sold to feed lots as well as to farms where they no longer set aside paddocks to grow it.

A study of maps suggested that the next stop on our route would be achievable with the petrol on board so we set off for Lascelles, about forty miles further on. There we found a pub, some empty shops, and, of course another painted silo. Unfortunately the strong sunlight made photographing this one difficult.



There were also murals on the small town's public toilet block- I was taught that it was not the done thing to draw on toilet walls, how things have changed.



Alas- no petrol available here. Time was when any little settlement would have a petrol pump at the General Store. Most of those have disappeared and I think that a probable part of the reason is that modern fuels deteriorate if kept for too long, so a seller who has a very small turnover, would end up with a lot of unusable stale fuel.

Getting more concerned we set off for Hopetoun, which, fortunately was just 17 miles away. Here we found another interesting mural.



here was an operational but unmanned petrol station. Having never struck such a thing, I was puzzling on how to operate it when a local chap pulled up to fuel his ute. He showed me how the thing worked, but the only payment method was with a credit card. We are a bit old fashioned and carry cash, so again we were thwarted, however we were told that there was petrol available two towns further on at Beula.

Setting off again, and now getting more and more worried. I usually fill the tank well before we have done 200 miles. Noreen consulted our log book and found an entry of some years ago showing that we had manage 220 miles before filling. We use distance as a measure so we don’t rely on the gauge which works intermittently. Fingers crossed we continued to the painted silo at Rosebury, where we paused for photos. We then continued to Beula.


Population here is listed as 329, whereas Hopetoun was double that. There was no actual petrol station there either, but we were directed to what appeared to be a small shop that sold agricultural supplies and found that they had a couple of Bowsers. With some relief we brought Beatrix’s tank to full again, with the trip register on 217.6 miles.

Off of the main street of Beula is a parking area with trees, so we decided to stop there to eat our cut lunch. Here we found a shelter over fifty small paintings depicting the history of the area, so no painted silo, but other worthwhile art to see. There were more than 50 of these paintings.





While examining these pictures, a car pulled up, the owner of which introduced himself by remarking on our Rover. He has a classic-era Mercedes, so stopped to chat with us. He was a good ‘local’ to meet, as he knew all about the silos, their age, use etc., as he supervised the whole chain of them. It was he that informed me that only out of service silos were painted. As he left, a truck load of hay passed by.



With car and occupants rested and ready to move on, we continued our journey. Brim was the name of a vast sheep station of 134,000 acres, taken up as a Government lease, but later broken into smaller properties. The townships of Beula and Brim both sit on former Brim sheep station land. At Brim, once again is a silo group beside a railway line and they are painted but almost monochrome.





Onward to Warracknabeal, a sizeable town of 2,400. It is, unfortunately showing signs of dwindling activity, in spite of it being dubbed ‘The Heart of The Mallee’. A local gentleman told me that less than twenty years ago, the town had every conceivable amenity. One did not need to go elsewhere to purchase any requirement, but the last car sales business had now closed, and there was a risk that other businesses would drift away. It is still part of the vast wheat growing area, but as farms get bigger at the expense of others, so too the general rural population decreases. We knew that there were no silo paintings there, but we did photograph a mural, then found the route out of town and set off for Sheep Hills.

Things don’t always go to plan. The road junction to Sheep Hills was being rebuilt so the road works blocked the whole intersection. We stopped to enquire, and were directed a few miles further on where there was another turn off. The somewhat round about way to get there was well worth it. The Sheep Hills silos had possibly the most impressive paintings. There was little else to see, just one house and a long-closed, but typical country pub building.







We set off once more, passing through the town of Minyip which had been used as the setting, under a different name, for the T.V. series ‘The Flying Doctors’. We had no reason to stop so continued to Rupanyup and the last painted silo of the chain. Beside the silos the long closed railway station building sat simmering in the sunshine. Also in the town were two very impressive wood sculptures, apparently the start of a further collection.





From Patchewollock to Rupanyup we had driven 131 miles. It was a quarter to 2 o’clock when we arrived. The afternoon had got quite warm. We decided to set off towards the Western Highway, and use it, in an Easterly direction, to start on the way home before stopping for the night. We reached the township of Ararat just after 4.00 p.m, located a caravan park with vacant cabins and finished our driving for the day. The tally was 282 miles. From our start in Swan Hill.

Although the distances seemed large, we found plenty of interest along the way. Both of us have a little knowledge of agriculture, so took notice of the visible crops and the harvest activities etc., so there was plenty of chatting about the things that we saw. Some might have found the trip boring, but we never do. There is always so much detail to see and enjoy. Although the predominant sightings were a variety of wheat fields, Other crops that we saw included Canola, barley and oats. We noticed that on the grain farms there were silos, usually steel and much smaller than the concrete ones and often many of them We also noticed quite a few large trucks carrying the local produce. Perhaps that is the reason that several if the large silos have now been de-commissioned, or perhaps the cause could be the other way around.

We awoke on Tuesday morning, once more we packed and checked the car, then set off on the way home. There was quite a lot of mist through the nearby hills. We stopped for another fill of petrol station near Beaufort, then as the sun climbed in the sky, the mist cleared and we had a good run via Ballarat to Melton. There I wanted to work our way somewhat to the North to regain the Calder Freeway to retrace our route through the suburbs. Melton has now become an outer suburb, or perhaps a dormitory suburb of Melbourne. It was so big and so busy since we were last there about twenty years ago, but with a combination of luck and Noreen’s map reading we found our way to the Calder and from there to Bell Street, to eventually join the Monash freeway and back into more familiar territory.

We had another fuel stop as well as a break for lunch and arrived home just after 1.30. We had driven 833 miles in the three days and used 164.87 litres of petrol the dearest fuel was 150.9 cents per litre, the cheapest 134.9 cents per litre. Our overall fuel consumption worked out to 22.98 miles per gallon. Noreen had a photographic advantage in her ability to take pictures while I drove, so she recorded 341 images while I only managed 229. Just as well digital film is cheap!

Noreen and I believe that a car is designed to be used. We thoroughly enjoy using our three Rovers even if it it just for local shopping, but our longer outings are also good for us, and probably good for our cars.
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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[Rick]

Good to see an old car being used properly, do you have any more photos of the Rover available?

RJ
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[Penman]

Hi
I looked at your post as if I was going to quote it.
Using the "Find" function CTRL+F function I found 16 [img]s and 16 [/img]s but only 13 of the links had "postimage"

So it looks as if there are 3 pictures with incorrect pastings

What I don't get is that usually incorrect links show up in the posting as code, which doesn't appear to be the case this time.
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Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
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[Bitumen Boy]

Thank you, Dane, for another enjoyable trip. The artwork on those silos is really something to see! I take it some tins of petrol will be packed for the next trip..?

[roverdriver]

Two pictures now fixed- Those for Sheep Hills.

Thanks Rick- I will dig out some more and post later. BTW the car has featured in some of my earlier stories.

Penman- Thanks for the investigate. I have just loaded two similar photos onto PostImage and they have worked. Problem must be something about the original loading into PI. I will try to do the others later today.

Bitumen Boy- On our longer trips, such as the 4,000 plus to Alice Springs, I always carry a jerry can with four gallons in it. We did not consider this as one of our longer trips
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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[roverdriver]

Now all pictures inserted and viewable.

As requested by Rick, here are some photos of Beatrix.

They were taken a few years ago during our trip to Alice Springs and back. At that time we had normal full registration on the car- hence the green/white number plates. Now we have her on a special registration for historic cars that is organised through clubs and is much cheaper.

The story of the Alice trip starts here should anyone wish to read it, or read it again.- http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14196&highlight=








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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[47Jag]

Dane,

Those paintings are superb. Was it the same artist who did them all and who paid for the work?

Art

[roverdriver]

Hello Art, I believe that each silo or set of silos were painted by different artists. I don't know how they were funded, but will see if I can find out.

You might find this link of interest. We did not go to the Nullawil silo, it was too far out of our way for this trip, but will get to see it at some future time, probably when we head to Adelaide.'

http://siloarttrail.com/home/

Dane.
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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[peter scott]

Great photos Dane and as others have said I particularly loved the grain silos.

Thanks for the travelogue, all very interesting.

Peter
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[47Jag]

Dane,

Quite a cosmopolitan collection of artist. Aussies, a Russian and of course the ubiquitous Glaswegian Scotsman. We're everywhere

Art